Global Coal Production Takes a Dive

By Matt Smith

If the Trump administration wants to bring back American coal jobs, it’s got its work cut out for it.

Global coal production plunged by the largest percentage on record in 2016 amid flat demand for energy and inroads by cleaner sources of power, the oil major BP reported Tuesday. Coal production worldwide fell by more than 6 percent as the black rock’s share of world energy production fell to its lowest level since 2004, according to BP’s annual Statistical Review of World Energy.

Slower economic growth in China and a move away from coal in North America and Europe dimmed the fuel’s prospects, resulting in a second straight year of decline. Worldwide, coal’s share of the world’s energy consumption fell for the second year in a row, down 1.7 percent to 28.1 percent.

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